From vision to influence

It was a rainy Sunday afternoon in New York on 22 February 1925. Around half past two, a group of men ‘particularly interested in inter-racial and international questions’ gathered at the Yale Club, near Grand Central Station Terminal. A Sunday during the congressional recess was chosen so that these busy public figures could attend. They came to discuss a proposal for a new institute, ‘its purpose, scope and method and the nature of American participation in it’. This proposed institute was to become the IPR. The letter of invitation noted: ‘Problems arising from the increasing intercourse between the Peoples of the Pacific Basin have inspired the proposal to hold at Honolulu an institute somewhat similar to the Williamstown Institute, under the auspices of an international committee made up of representatives from Australia, New Zealand, China,Japan, the Philippines, Canada and the United States’. ¹ The only country missing from this list and which sent delegates to the first conference was Korea.